I read seven books in September.
Always Gardenia by Betsy Hanson
In July I reported that I had a story in an anthology called All this Richness by Barbara Pym and her readers; all the stories were taken from entries to the short story competitions run by the Barbara Pym Society. Betsy Hanson also has a story in it – she has been shortlisted twice and won in 2023. We connected on social media and she kindly sent me a copy of her lovely novel.
Gardenia, from Seattle, is fifty-six and mourning the premature loss of her husband. But she is making a new life for herself – she has started a job as an administrative assistant in a university and is getting to know her colleagues (academia is such fertile ground for a novelist); she babysits her grandson (and worries about her daughter-in-law’s erratic behaviour) and she has her best friend Sylvie, and her beloved dachshund.
Wise and witty and Pymish – I loved it.
Murder in Bloom by Liz Fielding
More flowers … but this is the third in a great cosy crime series featuring garden designer, Abby Finch. In this one, Abby is invited onto a gardening TV programme and ends up investigating the murder of the presenter.
A Pen Dipped in Poison by J. M. Hall
Another cosy crime, this time with three ex-teacher sleuths Thelma, Liz and Pat. Careers and marriages are destroyed before the three discover the sender of the letters revealing the recipients’ secrets.
Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead
Not a book I would have come across if it hadn’t been an Amazon Prime free pick.
Child psychologist Willa Watters has come back to the small town in Louisiana where she, her feckless mother and her damaged little sister, spent childhood summers with her two great aunts. The aunts’ house has been left to the town but there are some boxes Willa must go through. A dry summer lowers the water in the bayou, bringing to light a serial killer’s work – and a shock for Willa.
Amusing Miss Austen by Angela Pearse
Sisters who must get married to avoid poverty, a dull clergyman cousin who will inherit their home – sounds a familiar story? Well, indeed – this, after all, is the situation that inspired Felicity's friend Jane Austen to write her best-loved novel ... I look forward to meeting these characters again. Felicity is a delightful heroine and Max is as dashing and (at first) as taciturn as one hopes for in a Regency hero, and of course one can never have too much of Miss Austen.
Great fun – and the sequel Visiting Miss Austen is now available to pre-order.
Highland Deceived by Jayne Castel
What a compelling hook – Connor, the new young chieftain of the Mackays of Farr has been betrothed for years but until now has never met his bride – and the woman he retrieves from the nunnery is not who he thinks. Keira – from the Gunn family, sworn enemies of the Mackays – falls hard for her husband but how can she keep her identity a secret? My heart was in my mouth when she got called out by someone who knew the girl she'd replaced. Set in the beautiful far north-west of Scotland, in Sutherland, this is a page-turning read and I look forward to revisiting the area and discovering what happens with Connor's siblings in the follow-up titles.
Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Gondola of Doom by Olga Wojtas
The latest mission for time-travelling Morningside librarian Shona, as given to her by her fearsome old headmistress Marcia Blaine. This time Shona thinks she’s been asked to travel back to 17th-century Venice to prevent an outbreak of the plague but she may (as usual) have got the wrong end of the stick. Misunderstanding abound, as do the puns and witticisms and literary allusions. Eventually, Shona’s 21st- century knowledge helps to change Italian history, just not in the way she expected.
An absolute joy.
